It has been shown that the presence of orthography (the written form of a word) is beneficial when children learn new vocabulary. The study I have been working on for UROP aims to address a gap in the literature over whether drawing attention to the presence of the written word aids learning even further. To do this, we worked with Year 5 pupils, teaching them new words and assessing their learning over a period of three weeks.

We began by carrying out background testing using several standardised assessments of reading and nonverbal reasoning etc. and the participants were then sorted into ability matched groups. We taught the children 16 new words in the format of a pre-test and training session on week one, another training session in week two and an assessment session in week three. These were words that a lot of adults don’t know, such as luminary and epigram; I only knew one myself beforehand (though after teaching them to so many children they now seem like basic vocabulary!) so it’s easy to imagine what a daunting task this was for 9 and 10 year old children. This is where the ability to work well with children and get them motivated was absolutely crucial.

Currently we are halfway through the sample and will be returning to schools in September to complete the project, with initial results looking very promising. There have been some hiccups (as is expected), but it should run smoothly in the next round of testing. This project is linked to a larger project in secondary schools and I have enjoyed having the chance to discuss ways in which this experimental procedure could be adapted in the future.

Working with Prof. Ricketts and Nicola Dawson has been very rewarding. They have been incredibly helpful, answering all my questions and giving me the opportunity to experience multiple aspects of conducting a research project. The chance to work with a fully qualified Speech and Language Therapist (which I am studying to be) has also been an unexpected bonus. My initial motivation for applying for a UROP project was to see whether research is something I would enjoy doing in future and already at this stage of the project, I can definitely say that this is something I would love to do.

Rachel Tomkinson